But although three of those players cost the club nothing in terms of transfer fees, Kenyon insists they were not targeted for that reason.

Kenyon said: "It's been quiet but we've still bought in new players.

"I think what there hasn't been is the noise of how much we've spent but I think we've been very targeted and very shrewd in what we've done.

"We wanted to strengthen the squad and we went for specific players, the fact that three of those players were free was not the reason we went for them, we went for them because we genuinely believed they could add to the squad and add to the team.

"It's really easy to say we can replace this guy with this guy, what you're looking for all the time is improving it and that's the difficult thing, and I have to say we've got a fantastic squad here.

"We've been big news because we've spent a lot, we've been big news now because we haven't spent any.

"The money has been available and both Jose and I have said it on several occasions, for the right player, the money is there.

"So it's not about being broke or restrained - it's actually looking at what we needed as a team to progress from where we were last season and last season was not a bad season.

"But I also think it's crucial to Chelsea to bring youngsters through and I think you can never trade ability and you can never afford to be too sympathetic.

"John Terry is captain of Chelsea because he's the best person to be captain of Chelsea and that's fact, but it would be very nice to think that we've got the next captain of Chelsea coming through the ranks now because it does add another value."